Loom.



Patented Ian. 8, l90l. H. W. WYMAN.

LOOII.

(Application filed Mar. 22, 1900.)

3 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

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PATENT HORACE W. WYMAN, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

LOONl.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 665,559, dated January 8, 1 961.

Application filed March 22, 1900, Serial No. 9,658. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HORACE W. WYMAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of WVorcester, county of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Looms, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

Looms have been devised having provision for changing automatically the filling through an electric current energizing a magnet whenever the filling on the carrier in the shuttle has become exhausted to a predetermined point. In one variety of loom of this class the filling-carriers are changed in the shuttle without stopping the loom and in another variety the shuttle in which the filling is eX- hausted to a predetermined point is changed while the loom is in motion. So, also, in looms now in use the bobbin or filling-carrier in the shuttle is provided with a metallic band normally covered by filling, and an electrode of an electric circuit contacts with the. filling while the shuttle contains filling; but when the filling is exhausted to a predetermined point the electrode carried by the shuttle meets the metallic band and closes an electric circuit energizing a magnet and sets in operation a device which enables the filling-changing means to act and replenish the filling.

In my efforts to improve looms of the class specified and enable the filling to be changed automatically I have devised a normally-balanced magnetized body or feeler which enters the shuttle and feels for the filling, and when said feeler by the absence of the filling from the filling-carrier to a predetermined point meets the band or other magnetic body connected with the filling-carrier the feeler is drawn or moved from its normal into its abnormal position, this being due-to the clinging of the magnetized feeler to the magnetic body of the filling-carrier, the movement of the feeler into its abnormal position permitting suitable detecting means under the control of said feeler to act and put into operation the filling-changing means.

My invention to be herein described is applicable to either class of loom referred to.

The accompanying drawings show two ways of supporting yieldingly the magnetized body or feeler. In one form the feeler is maintained in its normal position in the magnetic field of a coil in an electric circuit, the coil and feeler behaving as a solenoid-magnet having a plunger or movable core, and in the other form the magnetized body .or feeler is movable in asuitable guide and is maintained in its normal balanced position by a suitable spring. In either plan whenever the magnetized body or feeler, which may be of any material capable of being magnetized, meets the magnetic body of the filling-carrier, which may be a metallic band, as stated, the feeler is drawn by the filling-carrier in a direction to put it in its abnormal position, enabling the detecting means to move and operate the filling-changing means. I have chosen in this instance of myinvention to illustrate the same on a loom of the class herein first named and upon a particular form of that class of loom.- viz., a loom such as shown in United States Patent No. 633,976, dated September 26, 1899.

In the drawings representing my invention in one form, Figure 1 is a partial plan view of a loom, showing the breast-beam, the lay, the battery or hopper containing the spare fillingcarriers, and one form of filling-changing means operable in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a broken detail showing part of the filling-changing means. Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken through the coil and the magnetized body or feeler located therein. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail showing one end of the lay with a shuttle therein, the wall of the sh uttle-boX being perforated to admit the feeler to feel for the filling on the filling-carrier. Fig. 4 is a detail showing a modified form of feeler. Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional detail on the line 00 Fig. l, the front or stationary wall of the sh Little-box at the detecting end thereof being omitted, the lever being also omitted; and Fig. 6 is a detail showing the modified feeler enlarged.

The loom-frame z, the breast-beam 3, the lay 4, having a reed 5 and shuttle-boxes 6 and 7, one at each end of the lay, the shuttle'box 7 at the end of the lay where the filling is changed having a slot 8 in its bottom, the binders 9, the front walls 10 of the shuttleboxes, the picker-sticks 12, having usual pick ers for throwing the shuttles, the filling-fork 13, carried by the filling-fork slide 14, the lever 15, pivoted at 16 and moved by the said slide whenever the weft breaks to thus effect the release of the shipper-handle 17 and let it in its movement effect in the usual manner the stopping of the loom, the lay-connecting rods 18, (shown partially only in Fig. 2,) the cam-shaft 19, driven in practice from agear on the usual crank or lay shaft (not shown) through a suitable gear (not shown) connected with said cam shaft to thereby rotate the cam-shaft once to two rotations of the crank-shaft, the self-threading shuttle A, the battery or hopper B, containing the filling-carriers a, provided with filling, the ends of the filling being caught upon a suitable filling-holder 20, the rock-shaft 21, having an arm 22 extended upwardly to be struck by a slide-bar f said slide-bar having pivoted upon it at f an overbalanced lever f, the end of which nearest the breastbeam normally stands in an elevated position, as shown in Fig. 5, due to the weight of the thickerand heavier right-hand end of said lever, the level-f pivoted atf and operated once for each pick by the camf", the camshaft 19, each filling-carrier a, as represented in the shuttle A at the left-hand end of the lay, (see Fig. 1,) having a band CL, consisting of a magnetic body, preferably of metal, the rings a surrounding the base of the filling-carrier, the jaws d in the shuttle to receive between them the .ringed end of the filling-carrier, as best shown in Fig. 3, the filling-changing means, herein represented by the pusher h, and its train of actuating devices operated by the rocking of the shaft 21, said pusher in its connections constituting one form of fillingchanging means, are and may be all as common in looms represented in United States patents already issued, the parts designated by numerals being common to the Northrop patent, No. 529,940, dated November 27, 1894, and the devices designated by letters being common to United States Patent No. 633,976, hereinbefore referred to, said latter patent also showing substantially all the parts designated herein by numerals.

In operation the pusher forming part of the filling-changing means occupies a position normally above a filling-carrier supported in the battery, and whenever the rockshaft 21 is moved to actuate the filling-changing means the pusher meets the bobbin in the battery and pushes it against the exhausted carrier in the shuttle then in the shuttle-box at the right-hand end of the loom and immediately below the pusher, the incoming filling-carrier removing the exhausted filling-carrier from the shuttle and discharging it through the slot in the bottom of that shuttle-box.

In the Patent No. 633,976 the filling-changing means is operated by the closing of a spring or electrode carried by the shuttle, it meeting the band a of the filling-carrier when the filling has been exhausted to a predetermined point, the closing of the said electrodes exciting a magnet, causing it to attract its armature, movement of the armature operating a lever substantially the same as the lever f, herein referred to, with the exception that the lever in the patent is slotted to embrace the upper end of the 16V6lf the movement of the lever f by the magnet causing the leverf to move the slide-barf outwardly or toward the breast-beam and turn the rockshaft to thus set in motion the filling-changing means.

In the Patent No. 633,976 the electrode carried by the shuttle is represented as a spring, which isstruck at each movement of the lay toward the breast-beam by a spring-held pin, causing said electrode as the filling is unwound from the fillingcarrier to have a greater or less movement, until finally, when the filling has been removed from said carrier to a predetermined point, thus uncovering the metallic band on the filling-carrier, the spring electrode meets the band of the filling-carrier and completes the circuit.

In my invention I have done away with the electrode carried by the shuttle, and instead of the pin represented in said patent for moving said electrode I have employed a magnetic body or feeler, represented in Figs. 1 to 4 as a bar or slide 30, guided and sustained loosely within a coil 31 of wire, suitably wrapped or insulated at its outer side and sustained by or through suitable insulation upon the breast-beam or other stationary part of the loom, the wires 32 and 33 of the coil (see Fig. 1) being preferably in a circuit to thereby electrify the coil.

The magnetic body or feeler 30 and its surrounding guide in the form of a coil of wire, as stated, constitute what is designated a solenoid magnet, the feeler being its movable core, and in practice said magnetized core will occupy normally a defined position in the electric field of the coil, but it may yield and be slid more or less under the influence of a magnetic body-as, forinstance, the ban (1 upon the fill'ing-carrier-and when released the magnetism exerted by the electric current in the coil will immediately return the core or feeler into its normal position, which I shall herein designate as a balanced position, and one of the essential features of the invention to be herein claimed depends upon maintaining this magnetized body or core yieldingly in a normal position, putting it into an abnormal position temporarily only when the fillinghas been exhausted to a predetermined point to expose the magnetic body of the filling-carrier, that it may in the movement of the lay meet the magnetized body or feeler and slide the latter in the coil,

or in any suitable guide, far enough to put the magnetized body or feeler in its abnormal position.

which acts as a stop to arrest the movement of the feeler at the extreme of its abnormal position.

Viewing Fig. 3, it will be noticed that the wall of the plate 10 has a hole and that the side of the shuttle next said wall has a hole 61 and that the magnetic body a, connected with or surrounding the carrier at, is opposite the hole 61, so that at every forward beat of the lay in putting filling into the fell the end of the feeler nearest the lay enters the hole in the said plate and at every other beat of the lay the hole in the shuttle and meets the filling, the magnetic body or feeler being slid by the yarn to the left viewing Figs. 1 and 5, keeping, however, the end of the feeler nearest the breast-beam always in a normal position, and this feeler occupies its abnormal position only when the filling shall have been unwound sufficiently to expose the magnetic body of the carrier, that it may be met by the end of the magnetized body or feeler, and thereafter in the movement of the lay away from the fell the action of the magnetic body of the carrier clinging to the end of the feelerdraws the feeler with it, putting the feeler in its abnormal position, enabling the detecting means now to be described to operate and set in motion the filling-changing means.

The detecting means, as herein represented in one of the best forms known to me, consists of an arm 34, extended from one side of a rock-shaft 35, mounted in suitable bearings of the loom, said rock-shaft having an arm 36 and a finger 37, both said arm and finger being herein represented as extending from the same side of the rock-shaft. The end of the arm 36 rests upon and is controlled by an actuator composed of a rod 38, movable in a suitable guide fixed to the loom side and connected at its lower end with a lever 39, pivoted at 40, and provided at its opposite end with asuitable stud 41, entering a camgroove 42 in a cam-disk 43, fast on the camshaft 19 at one side of the cam f. The arm 34 occupies a position normally, as represented in Figs. 1 and 5, immediately above that end of the magnetic body or feeler nearest the breast-beam, while the finger 37 stands normally in contact with the outer or long arm of the lever f, it being herein represented as provided at its outer end with a downturned hook, which may be caught by the moving end of the leverf.

It.- will be understood that the shuttle comes into the detecting-box at the left-hand end of the lay (see Fig. 1) only at every other pick, and it is only at such time that the feeler is moved by the presence'or absence of the filling on the carrier, and it will also be noticed that the cam 42 is of such shape that the arm 34, the shape of which is best shown in the dotted lines, Fig. 5, may drop, due to the movement of the feeler, into its abnormal position only at such time as the shuttle is in the box at the left-hand end of the loom.

Assuming now that the parts referred to are in the position Figs. 1 and 5, should the filling be exhausted to uncover themagnetic body connected with the filling-carrier at a forward stroke of the lay, the shuttle being in the box at the left-hand end thereof, the feeler will be attracted to and will engage and be moved by the magnetic body of the filling-carrier and will be drawn to the right, viewing Fig. 5, thus moving the feeler from its normal into its abnormal position, and this done the arm 34 immediately drops, the actuator 38 at this instant of time being in its lowest position, the descent of the arm 34 turning the rock-shaft 35 and causing the finger 37, in contact with the leverf, to turn said lever downwardly, that its hooked end may be engaged by the moving lever f the time of movement of said lever being controlled by the shape of the cam f and said lever f in engagement with the leverf, moves the slide f to the left, viewing Fig. 5, causing it to meet the arm 22, turn the rock-shaft 21, and actuate the filling-changing means, immediately supplying to the shuttle on its arrival in the shuttle-box at the right-hand end of the loom a fully-wound filling-carrier to take the place of the filling-carrier from which when the shuttle was in the box atthe lefthand end of the lay the absence of the filling to the predetermined point was detected.

The end of the arm 34 is shaped as a cam, as at 63, and in the descent of this arm the cam-face never passes low enough to com pletely retire from that end of the feeler nearest the breast-beam, so that when the actuator in the further movement of the cam 42 is moved, it acting on the arm 36 to lift the finger 37 and permit the leverfto be disengaged from the lever f the end of the lever 34 may not be obstructed in its movement by catching against the feeler 30. I

As has been stated, the movement of the arm 22, as herein illustrated, moves the rockshaft 21 and through the devices herein shown and fully represented also in said Patent No. 633,976 moves the pusher h to elfect a change of filling; but my invention also includes in its scope the starting into operation of any known filling changing meansas, for in stance, filling-changing means such as shown in United States Patent No. 615,532, dated December 6, 1898, wherein the movement of an arm and rock-shaft like the arm and rockshaft herein shown and described sets in operation means for actuating a spare shuttlefeeder, it containing a shuttle provided with a filling-carrier supplied with filling.

The finger 37 and the arms 34 and 36 are herein represented as so located with relation to the rock-shaft as to cause the detecting device constituted by said parts to obey gravity and in the movement of said detector when released 'by the putting of the magnetized body or feeler in its abnormal position, enabling the finger 37 to meet and turn the le ver f.

The coil forms one good and very satisfactory guide and balancing device for the magnetized body or feeler, yet the results herein described may be attained by mounting the magnetized body or feeler, (marked min Fig. 6,) shown as guided in ears of a stand m, said stand taking the place of the interior of the coil, and instead of balancing the magnetized body or feeler by and in an electric field in accordance with the principles of a solenoid I may employ a suitable spring m surrounding said feeler between the ears of the stand.

In the modifications Figs. 4 and 6 the pin m acts to limit the extent of movement of the feeler as it clings to the magnetic body of the carrier, said pin being the equivalent in operation of the projection 133 on the feeler 80, hereinbefore referred to.

I have shown the detector as composed of arms connected with a rock-shaft; butit will be understood that the invention herein contained is not limited to the use of a detecting device of only the construction represented, as I may use any form of lever or device which when not supported by the magnetized body or feeler at a time when the lay is moving away from the breast-beam, the shuttle being in the detecting-box, will be moved to put the slidef in engagement with the arm 22 to start into operation the filling-changing means.

I believe that I am the first to balance a magnetized body or feeler in any way for the in whatever form it may be embodied and whatever the form of the mechanism controlled by said feeler, so that a change of position of the feeler from its normal into its abnormal position will efiect the changing of filling.

While I prefer to use-metal for the feeler and for the band of the filling-carrier, yet I may use any magnetic material or substances which when brought in contact mechanically may adhere one to the other.

In one aspect of my invention the feeler may be considered as a magnet and the band on the filling-carrier as an armature, the magnet being moved mechanically by a device carrying the armature at every other beat of the lay toward the magnet; but the armature is not effective to couple with it the magnet and put it into an abnormal position until the armature is sufficiently uncovered to compel the feeler to follow and be moved by the filling-carrier into its abnormal position.

The feeler and the band may be designated as a mechanicallymoving but intermittingly-coupled magnet.

The detecting device 34, herein shown, in

one sense of the word constitutes what may be designated as an auxiliary feeler, it being moved periodically by or through the action of the actuating means herein provided for, the chief element of which is the rod 38 and its operating-cam, so that the arm 34 of said device is enabled to approach the feeler while the lay is moving backwardly at every other pick and while the shuttle is in the detecting-box at the left-hand end of the lay, as herein shown, said arm 34 feeling for the main feeler 30, and in case said main feeler is in its abnormal position the auxiliary feeler in its further movement enables parts connected with and controlled by it to operate the lever f and effect a change of filling, as herein provided for.

In one of the claims at the end of this specification I use the term auxiliary feeler in the sense hereinbefore referred to.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a loom, a filling-carrier and a feeler yieldingly sustained in normal position, one having a magnetic and the other a magnetized body, and filling-changing means operated by the movement of said feeler into abnormal position due to the cooperation of said feeler with said filling-carrier.

2. In a loom, a magnetized body or feeler, means to sustain the same yieldingly in a normal position, filling-changing means, detecting means sustained in its inoperative position when the said feeler occupies its normal position, a lay having a shuttle provided with a filling-carrier provided with a magnetic body normally covered with filling, the exhaustion of the filling of the filling-carrier to a predetermined point enabling the contact of the said magnetic body with the feeler, putting said feeler in its abnormal position and effecting the operation of the filling-changing means.

3. In a loom, a guide, a magnetized feeler sustained yieldingly in balanced condition in said guide, a lay having a shuttle-box, a sh uttle in said box having a filling-carrier provided with a magnetic body adapted to-contact with said magnetized feeler and move it with the lay on a back stroke thereof after the exhaustion of the filling from the fillingcarrier in said shuttle sufficient to uncover the normally-covered magnetic body of the filling-carrier.

4. In a loom, fillingchanging means, a shuttle provided with a filling-carrier having an attached magnetic body normally covered by filling, a solenoid-magnet containing a magnetized core constituting a feeler, said core or feeler being balanced in its normal position in said solenoid-magnet, the said core or feeler being put in its abnormal position whenever the magnetic body of the carrier is exposed by the removal of filling to a predetermined point and effecting the operation of the filling-changing means.

5. In a loom, a battery or carrier containing a filling-carrier wound with filling, a shuttle having a filling-carrier provided with a magnetic body, a magnetized body or feeler and filling-changing means operable by a change of position of said feeler due to uncovering the magnetic body of the filling-carrier in the operation of weaving.

6. In a loom, a shuttle having a filling-carrier provided with a magnetic body normally covered by filling, combined with a movable magnetized body adapted to be moved by the filling on the filling-carrier away from the line of the fell of the cloth being woven, and movable by the filling-carrier toward the line of said fell when the magnetic body of the filling-carrier is exposed by the delivery of filling to a predetermined extent.

7. In a loom, a lay having at each end a shuttle-box, a shuttle having a filling-carrier provided with magnetic material, a magnetized feeler movable by the filling of the filling-carrier at a forward beat of the lay, detecting means cooperating with said feeler and operable by the movement of said feeler into its abnormal position, and actuating means to restore said detecting means into its normal position.

8. In a loom, filling-changing means, and a feeler adapted to occupy a normal position and to be put into an abnormal position, combined with detecting means, and actuating means for said detecting means, whereby said detecting means is made to approach the feeler and be arrested thereby when said feeler is in its normal position, it passing said feeler and enabling the filling means to be operated to effect the change of filling whenever said feeler is in its abnormal position.

9. In a loom having provision for changing the filling automatically, a lay having a shuttle-detecting shuttle-box, a shuttle which arrives intermittingly in said box, a filling-carrier in said shuttle, a feeler cooperating with the filling-carrier, and movable into its inoperative position Whenever the filling has been exhausted from the filling-carrier to a predetermined point, combined with an auxiliary feeler, and means to move it toward and from the line of movement of the first-named feeler, the first-named feeler arresting the auxiliary feeler at all times except when the first-named feeler is in its abnormal position.

10. In a loom, a filling-carrier, a yieldinglysustained feeler capable of being moved with the filling-carrier by magnetic action from its normal into its abnormal position when the filling has been exhausted and a change of filling is to be made, and filling-changing means operated by the movement of said feeler into its abnormal position.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two. subscribing witnesses.

HORACE W. WYMAN.

Witnesses:

MARY HASKELL WYMAN, GEORGE S. TAFT. 

